Diamond In The Route

DAVE HYDE Commentary

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Wide Receiver Chris Champers, Dolphins Say, Can't Fail To Succeed

September 20, 2001|DAVE HYDE Commentary

Everyone around the Dolphins says the same three things about rookie Chris Chambers: His physical gifts are staggering. His ability to make big plays, grand catches -- "Randy Moss-like stuff," veteran receiver James McKnight says -- is staggering.

But the one immeasurable, un-timeable, indefinable component of his game perhaps is most staggering of all.

"His attitude is -- well, the darndest thing you'll ever see is where he sits in our meetings," receivers coach Robert Ford says, turning his back and motioning with one hand like he's writing on a board as he does in meetings. "Everyone sits in the back or spreads out in the middle somewhere.

"And he's always taking notes, writing everything I say," he says. "You say something to him on the field, you just have to say it once. You explain a new technique he's never done, he listens and then goes out and does it like he's been doing it for years."

Ford shakes his head. "We didn't know he was going to be this much a diamond."

Everyone wants to know after a preseason of promise and a game of high-watt energy who Chambers can become in the NFL. But let's stop here. Let's talk about who he already is. Let's measure what the Dolphins traded up to grab him in the second round.

How does the expression go? Hand someone a million dollars and you'll find out just what kind of person you have? It will bring out laziness or smugness, arrogance or self-satisfaction. Or it will harden the drive, hunger and the direction the inner compass points.

Here is where Chambers' inner compass points: As a junior, he transferred high schools in the Cleveland area, not to better his sports skills, improve his teams or to give himself a bigger platform. In fact, he didn't want to do it. He did so because his uncle, Dan Chambers, the male influence in his life, demanded it.

And his uncle was a basketball coach at the school he left, Glenville High.

"Some people were mad about that," Dan Chambers said. "But Chris was starting to go down a little bit in academics, in concentrating on classes, that sort of thing.

"The main thing was the environment. At Glenville there was a lot of negative peer pressure. It was important to get him out of that environment. I didn't want to look back 10 years later and kick myself for not doing something."

But surely it was a (wink-wink) coincidence that the football program was better, right?

"They ran a wing-T offense at the new school [Bedford]," Chris said. "It was as conservative an offense as you can find. For a receiver -- they didn't pass a whole lot."

Ask if he complained about the offense, Chambers says, "That's not really my nature."

But he enjoyed himself. "Oh, yeah. I had a lot of fun. We won. I played hard. I wanted to contribute more -- that's natural. But it was fun."

Not complaining? Playing hard? Having fun? Do you sense the roots of the attitude Ford sees up front, middle seat, every day?

Chambers caught 25 passes as a junior. Twelve went for touchdowns. That's a school record. He also set a school record with 17 assists in a basketball game. He won the 400 meters in the Ohio state track meet, too.

So what you had was a three-sport, all-state athlete who could have gone to any college, played in any state, and where does he go?

Wisconsin. For a star-quality receiver, this was like transferring to Ice Station Zebra to run the wing-T.

"They ran Ron Dayne something like 40 times a game [in Chambers'] first three years and Michael Bennett in his senior year, but he never complained or sulked or did anything but work hard," Uncle Dan said.

He was hurt a couple times. He made a big mistake in a free-shoe to-do that landed him in trouble. But the challenge sometimes with kids is to look beyond what they did and see who they are, what they can become.

Dan counted nine receivers drafted before Chambers. He knows that became a fossil fuel of motivation at a place where, from strictly a football standpoint, Chambers' receiving skills can shine through. Chambers says he is "still grasping the NFL way." He says the opening game opened his eyes to "how much faster real games are played." His expectation is to "make the most improvement of the year between the first and second games."

Meanwhile, in the locker room, McKnight draws out the comparison of the rookie with Minnesota's Moss by saying, "Both have the ability on the deep ball to jump up, reach with long arms over a defender and grab the ball. That's special."

Ask Chambers about the Moss comparison, he backpedals quickly, saying, "I've never said anything about that." It does sounds absurd, too, a second-round pick compared to a player with the talent to be this generation's Jerry Rice.

But Ford doesn't flinch.

"Moss can do some things with his size that Chris can't," he says. "By the same token, Chris will do some things, because of who he is, that Moss can't."

He's talking attitude here -- Moss' documented petulant one and Chambers' upbeat one. Whether that holds for a season with Chambers, much less a career, is worth monitoring. But, entering Game 2, it's the observant eyes and listening ears as much as the sure hands and fast feet of the Dolphins' most impressive rookie that have impressed the other Dolphins most of all.